After the audition

Today at lunchtime, I spoke with Jody the director regarding the play I auditioned for.

I like her style. She started off by telling me the decision and then the why behind it. Some prefer to tell me the why first and leave me in suspense; I detest that approach.

Basically, I did not get the part and the reason was that despite what was a good audition, she felt with my lack of acting experience I wasn’t ready to lead a play. Basically, I have potential to be a decent actor, but this type of role at this time isn’t a good fit.

I’m relieved for two reasons: one, I completely agree with her and two, with my schedule the next month, making it to most rehearsals would’ve been very difficult at best. When I suggested to her it might be best for me to start with supporting roles, she said that would be a good idea. Jody also mentioned I was a “clean canvas” and that it would be better to start at one of those roles instead.

An upcoming play is a musical. I’ll try out and try not to burst out laughing. I hardly think of myself as a singer.

For upcoming plays, it would obviously be a good idea to attend plays and watch movie productions of the plays to get an idea of what the play is about and what the character does. Of course, reading the play is a good idea.

And, of course, if the chance comes to study with someone and get formal training, take it.

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardzowie@gmail.com.

Auditioned for a Neil Simon play last night

Last night, before getting pictures for work, I headed to the Clio Cast and Crew to audition for a part in an upcoming Neil Simon play.

This was the first time in a long time I’d auditioned for something. Years ago when trying to get into radio I made a mock news recording on cassette tape. Then, in 2004 when screening calls at San Antonio’s News Talk 550 KTSA, the news director told me there was an opening in the weekend anchor position and asked me if I wanted to do a news recording so they could see how I’d sound on the air. Thankfully, I passed that with flying colors. (For some reason, reading live news has always been easier for me than having to record and edit. Maybe it’s because you force yourself to get it right the first time, realizing there is no Take Two). 

So, I auditioned and read for the part.

We had a few pages of dialogue, and as we did it, I found myself wishing I’d seen the movie first and had read the script in its entirety. But as I read, I got an idea of the voice inflections to use. Once or twice the script called for me to look at my watch, and I did that. And then a few times when the character makes a surprised proclamation, my eyes widened as if I were indeed incredulous.

When we finished, Jody (the lady I read with) told me my voice sounded good and loud. Friday I’ll find out if I got the part.

Yes, I would love to get this part as performing on stage is a secret passion of mine, but the main reason I auditioned was to get my feet wet in the acting process. If I don’t get the part, I’ll find out what else, as a theater member, I can do for the play.

It’s possible that if I get the part I may have to use a few words I normally do not use, but one thing I remind myself are two things actors have told me: Adam Vernier described acting as being a “faker”; you are playing a role, nothing else. Adam also told me once that if fame (or, for that matter, fortune) are your motiviations for getting into acting, don’t bother. You have to REALLY love doing it. The late David Hess once said acting is just that–acting. It’s not the real world.

Someday I’d also love to do voice-overs and perhaps even serve as a public address announcer. Back in 2004, I was one of several live auctioneers for Blazing Gavels, a fund-raising event for San Antonio’s PBS affiliate KLRN. I had the time of my life.

Richard Zowie is a Michigan-based writer. He envisions himself as someday having the lead role in a movie titled The Man Who Loved Ducks. Post comments here or e-mail them to richardzowie@gmail.com.

No worries, I’m not dead–yet

Just a little hiatus from blogging to deal with some personal issues. There comes a time when you have to kick yourself in the tuchus and say, “C’mon! Let’s get going!”

I promise: tonight I’ll put in another posting once I get home from work.

New poems for 12-1-2011

9-29-2011 — Fun With Cooking

Life is far too boring

                        dull

                        lackluster

To microwave TV dinners

To cook with premade sauces.

The kitchen should be a playground

                                           lab

To cook

      experiment

      taste

      create

To smile

When your culinary crdeations

Make your children

                    and others

Happy.

11-23-2011 — Sky, China, Russia

The sky, the heavens

Silver, gold,

Fiery red, blue, purple, green

Playground

Showcasing

God’s creativity

中国人们说:

你好，水星，火星，木星！

Русские говорят:

Здравствуйте, Солнце и Плутон!

We say,

Hello, sun, Sirius B, Proxima Centauri, Betelgeuse, Andromeda Galaxy!

11-26-2011 — Sylvia Plath 

At the bookstore

Within the sea of books

I found

Ms. Sylvia Plath.

Sky-high talent,

Sky-high surreal imagery,

Sky-high sadness,

Even across time,

My heart hurts.

11-26-2011 — Haiku about Jupiter 

Bright, bright moving star

Far East they call you 木 星

Mysteries endless!

11-26-2011 — Thirty Years as a Christian

Even at тридцать лет

There is still

So much

Of God

Of Jesus

Of the Bible

Я еще не понимаю.

11-26-2011 – When sleep is evasive 

When sleep is evasive

My head feels warm

My thoughts can’t connect

Everything’s uphill.

I’m in a haze

Many things seem hilarious.

My pillow, sheets

Become a

Freshly-laundered and dried cotton cloud.

11-29-2011 — Sun, moon, brightness

One day,

Countless 月 ago,

日was lonely

As was 月.

They consoled each other,

Found brightness in each other.

Soon,

日and 月

Became 明.

11-29-2011 — Michael Jordan? Wasn’t he an athlete?

The day will arrive

Perhaps untold, countless

Lunar orbits from now

When space stations orbit Jupiter

To try to unlock the under-the-cloud mysteries that abound

When a basketball player

Will hear the name

Michael Jordan

And will respond with a

Blank, void, gaze.

Even superheroes

Eventually are

Superforgotten.

11-29-2011 — Solomon’s books

Proverbs,

Ecclesiastes,

Song of Solomon.

Three books

Solomon wrote

With this message:

“THIS is what I

SHOULD HAVE DONE

with my life!!!”

11-29-2011 — Jupiter and other gas giants hold emergency meeting

I wonder if

The day will come

When

Jupiter

will gather

Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

And tell them:

“Someday

People from that tiny round blue ball

Will orbit us

And extract our hydrogen

And other resources

Until all that’s left

Are our rocky cores!

We must do something!”

11-30-2011 — Chinese haiku about astronomy, planets and telescopes

[I spent eight months of my life formally studying Mandarin Chinese at the Army's Defense Language Institute. I also have access to online Chinese dictionaries. Any errors in writing in Chinese characters are solely my own. -- Richard Zowie (or, as I was called in Chinese, 左瑞查)]

我看了木星

每天在天明烽火

望远镜在哪?

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Poems on pens, style, clouds, a pretty lady, odes and wisdom

9-18-2011 — Drums and Pens

In a magazine
I saw an
Elaborate
Drum kit.
Only two hands and two legs
Yet so many
Drums,
Cymbals and hi-hat.
What drums, cymbals, kick drums, hi-hat.
Why, how they are used
Depend on
The song, the tempo.
I have
Black, blue, red, purple
Papermate Profits, Silhouette Elites, 300 RTs
Zebras
And a few Parkers.
Waht, which, how, when, why
Depends on
What’s being written, how, why
And, sometimes,
It’s all up to my mood.

9-21-2011 S.E. Hinton and 60s to 70s style

When S.E. Hinton wrote
That Was Then, This Is Now,
And observed
Greasers combing their hair over their foreheads
And Socs dressing to look poor,
For me,
This 1971 observation
Captured
The transition
Of 1960s
To 1970s Style.

9-22-2011 — Dirty Clouds

Dirty billows of cotton
Fill the blue sky
How they must be having fun
As they slowly float by
Not a care in the world
Atop the world
As they look at us and observe
They lack the nerve
To leave their home
And among us roam.

9-25-2011 — The Beautiful, Unhappy Woman

The thin,
Curly blond-haired,
Blue-gray-eyed
5’5″-ish
Beautiful woman
Asks for cigarettes
Her once-medium-high voice
Now a little hoarse,
Gravelly, upper range.
She wears a ring
And her eyes
Avoid her smile.
Sometimes I wonder
If smoking
Is the result
Of that piece of metal she wears
And
Of the eyes that won’t smile.

9-25-2011 — Ode to the Ode

You always work so hard
Paying homage to others.
Now,
It’s time
For you to be recognized
I honor you, Ode.
Enjoy.

9-25-2011 — Chinese and American Wisdom

In the land called
中国,
A wise person once observed:
“Failure is the mother of success.”
Fast forward a millennia or so.
In the land called America
(Or, in 中文, 美国)
A somewhat wise writer said:
“Life is a chess match.
“Always think at least
“Ten moves ahead
“When making important decisions.”

Post comments here or e-mail them to richardzowie@gmail.com.

More poems; mysterious musician, mysterious basketball player

9-13-11 — Apology to an Unknown Musician

My sincereest apologies,

Acclaimed fusion guitarist

54 years old,

Muy Thai association co-founder

I have no idea, had no idea

Who you are, who you were.

9-18-2011 — Ode to Brian Williams/Bison Dele

Bison Dele, a.k.a., Brian Williams, playing for the Chicago Bulls.

You were an enigma

Living for adventure

Bored by this planet.

You entered life as

Brian Williams

And presumably,

Mysteriously,

Perhaps fittingly

Left life as

Bison Dele.

Nobody knows exactly

How, why, when, where, or even if

but our intuition

And that arrest

And that

Fatal

Insulin overdose

Of Kevin Williams/Miles Dabord

Tell us

You are resting

In the depths of the

Deep

Blue

South Pacific Ocean.

Society craves complexicity

But

Must settle for

Simplicity.

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A few more poems…

8-25-11 — Endless White

At the end of the

Seemingly endless

Black blanket of stars

I imagine

Endless white

No shapes, no surface.

Bright, brilliant

A void vacuum.

Perhaps someday

All the blackness grows

The white will shrink.

How much white is there

When it’ll run out

What it is

Only God knows.

8-25-11 — Time to Get Busy

Time to get busy

Off my butt

Idleness…Devil’s workshop.

I was 18 yesterday,

Am 38 now.

Double my life,

And I’ll be 76

If I’m still alive.

Life is a short, brief, wispy vapor.

So much to do

So little time.

No more mourning

Self-pity sucks

I remember that Des’ree song:

You gotta be…

8-27-11 — No, Energetic White Powder!

No, energetic white powder!

I will never, ever try you!

Some say you fill them

With amazing energy

Lots of housework done

Writing accomplished

Weight lost

But

You create paranoia

You burn the nose.

You create rivers of blood.

Some desperately want to sleep,

But their internal electrical circuits are WIDE awake.

I will never try you

Because I fear

I will like you

Far too much

And will

NEVER

Want to stop.

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A few poems I’ve written recently

Much of the poetry I’ve written over the past several months has been designed to be cathartic in nature. Those are far too personal and will probably never be published. I may lock them into a safe deposit box someday and place strict orders in my will that upon my death they are to be burned.

Other poems are attempts at poetry: my strange thoughts and observations. While I’m not the world’s worst poet, it’s definitely not my writing “axe” and I can think of one friend in particular who writes publishable poetry.

8-24-11 — Sunset

The sunset

Monday

A fascinating contradiction

Bright orange

and Burnt orange

Together

The same.

8-21-11 — The Ancient Woman

The ancient woman

Is still a natural blonde

Yet

Her skin is too dark

Wrinkled

Leathery

Tattoos on her shoulders and chest

A faded green

Blurry and nondescript with age

Her nose bulbuous, weathered

Yet

Her eyes still a lively blue

What stories could she tell?

7-13-11 — Ode to the Finnish Language

Ode to the Finnish Language

Or, as the Finns call it,

Suomen kieli.

They call their country Suomi.

I do neither speak nor understand you.

But I know,

Neitehr Norwegian nor Swedish

Are your brothers

Or even cousins.

An old encyclopedia says

Estonian is family to you.

Please tell me, Finnish:

Why do you call Finland “Suomi”?

And, while we’re talking about your area,

Why do you call Sweden “Ruotsi”?

I can’t describe you,

Except…

…Japanese meets Dutch?

Richard Zowie, honest to goodness, does not speak Finnish. Post comments here or e-mail them to richardzowie@gmail.com.

What are YOUR day jobs, fellow writers?

For 11 years I have been a professional writer. I have one published short story to my credit along with countless news and feature stories and columns. Lots of sports, also. Once I even ghostwrote a column for a brigadier general. And then there are the finished-but-unpublished short stories sleeping on my hard drive, along with two novels I’m working on.

Last, but not least, my blogs.

My dream is to be a full-time fiction writer.

Like many writers out there, I can’t support myself and my kids on what I earn as a writer. So, I have day jobs.

Thirty hours a week I work at a weekly newspaper. Sometimes it feels more like 40, but I love this job immensely. Getting paid to write–how great is that?

Twenty-four hours a week (although, this week it will be 32), I work at a gas station. It also feels like I put more hours there, but whatever my unsaid opinion might be, I really can’t complain: this job pays my electric bill, auto insurance bill, internet bill, cell phone bill, and many other things.

Those are my two day jobs, and I’ve had others: (briefly) a factory worker, a bagel maker, a broadcaster, a telemarketer and a cashier.

I remember one novelist, who worked as a waitress, was asked what motivated her to write: “Because I absolutely hated my day job,” she replied.

So, fellow writers, what are YOUR day jobs?

Richard Zowie has been writing professionally since 2000. Post comments here or e-mail him at richardzowie@gmail.com.

What I’ve been doing

Still reading an unnamed autobiography for research into a novel I’m writing. Those whom I trust with my top-secret writing ventures know what I’m talking about. Have learned a lot so far. I must say, while I was ambivalent towards this person when I first began reading about them, I’ve grown to see them as a far more complicated person than what many might realize…

…As far as fiction goes, I have bitten off more than I can chew and have checked out two books from the library: Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! and Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada. This is very common for me as sometimes I’ll see several books that will interest me. I think the only time I will ever succeed in reading every book in one setting of the armful I collect is if I’m going on a vacation somewhere where there is no internet access but unlimited time for reading. Am currently reading Cather’s book. Very fascinating so far, but as is often the case with classic literature, the story grows stale in your mind if you’re not reading on a frequent basis…

…Lately I’ve felt very sluggish mentally and am trying to decide what happens next in my novel(s) and stories. And try to market what I’ve already written. One friend recently read my suspenseful short story No Experience Necessary and told me she liked it a lot and didn’t expect the twist at the end.

Richard Zowie is a writer. Post comments here or e-mail them to richardzowie@gmail.com.